On August 27, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in Parillo v. Italy that a ban prohibiting a woman from donating embryos resulting from in vitro fertilization to scientific research was not a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court found Article 8 applicable to the facts of the case because “the applicant’s ability to exercise a conscious and considered choice regarding the fate of her embryos concerns an intimate aspect of her personal life and accordingly relates to her right to self-determination,” however, the Court focused on the “necessity of the measure in a democratic society” and found that Italy enjoyed a wide “margin of appreciation” in regulating these issues. The Court noted that the case “raises sensitive moral or ethical issues” and held that a “wide margin of appreciation” for Italy was appropriate because “there is no European consensus on the subject.” The Court also addressed Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and held that with regard “to the economic and pecuniary scope of that Article, human embryos cannot be reduced to ‘possessions’ within the meaning of that provision.”  According to the press release, the Court in this case “was called upon for the first time to rule on this issue.”